Ocean Spray has today (19 October) reduced its 2010 cranberry crop forecast for both the cooperative and the industry.

The cooperative said that earlier forecasts, as recently as September, were optimistic, but that lower yields, primarily due to poor weather will result in a drop of over 6% compared to previous industry estimates. The group is now projecting the 2010 US crop to be less than 7m barrels, down over 500,000 barrles from the August Cranberry Marketing Committee (CMC) projection of 7.5 million.

“Given the continued discussion throughout the grower communities of a large and increasing crop surplus, we thought it was important to alert our growers, agents and key customers of the rapidly changing situation,” said Mike Stamatakos, VP Agriculture Supply and Development.

“There was excellent blossom and fruit set earlier in the year, leading our growers to forecast a large 2010 crop. However recent delivery analyses and grower reports point to significant fruit rot in parts of Wisconsin caused by incessant summer rains, scalding in Massachusetts caused by excessive summer heat and lower crop overall yields in the west due to a very cool and wet growing season.”